DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this.
All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.
It was some time before she noticed the hollow ticking of the hidden clock, it seemed to provide an annoying dissidence to the throbbing of her ribs and head and wrist as she knelt on the freezing cold stone floor. She had traced the patterns in the marbles grain until her finger was sore and stopped as a sharp clattering sound somewhere behind her caught her wavering attention. She only wished the numbness would spread right the way up her legs and take away the throbbing from her ribs, and the frightened ache in her chest.
Something was very very wrong. Even in their most heated arguments over the last few months he had never deliberately gone out of his way to hurt her, she had watched his anger and frustration ebb and wane as her own had done. They each seemed a little lost, but not this. The stone beneath her felt wrong, as did the air and the light. All wrong. She wanted to scream at the scuttling creatures in the shadows and throw something very big and very heavy at that unseen clock, but she couldn't muster up enough energy to even shift position.
She manically compared the ticking of the clock to the erratic stuttering of her heart, counting the seconds of held breath which she had to release finally as her vision started to blur. She was falling apart disconnected, disjointed, disorientated and really really fed up.
She didn't know how long it had been since the strange old woman had left her in the throne room, but sometime much further on in the tepid oily gloom a child cried, rousing her from her daze. Something beyond the pillars out of her line of sight made a grating sound, another door perhaps and the wailing instantly increased in volume. The gloom congealed into the dark form of the Goblin King, shrouding him in midnight black. He stopped, not even noticing her, summoning one of the scuttling creatures to his side.
"Take this." His voice whispered across her exposed nerves making them tingle. He handed the crying infant to the creature which hurried away somewhere taking the infant with it, leaving him standing there utterly still as she held her breath. She wanted to say his name, wanted to get up and run to him, but she could do neither. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest as another woman entering the throne room behind Jareth broke the silence.
"Majesty." She curtseyed placing her hand across her chest.
"Send for my brother." He said turning away and walking towards his throne. The woman paused and gasped as she noticed Sarah for the first time.
"Jareth, why is she here!"
"What?"
"Sarah, in your throne room. I don't care how much you hate her Jareth, shes sick! She should be in bed not half close to death on the stone floor!"
"What are you talking about Anyetta?" He turned and looked across the room, looking right through Sarah.
"Moirai." Anyetta whispered. She ran to Sarah's side muttering something under her breath.
"You must see her Jareth!" She said angrily touching Sarah's shoulder gently.
The Goblin King frowned and wove a spell, banishing whatever magic had been in the room from it, his eyes narrowing in anger as he realised Anyetta was right.
"What is the meaning of this! What have they done! I warned you!" He raged stalking over to where Sarah still knelt. Without warning he had dragged her to her numb feet and up against a pillar. Shouting at her as she wept incoherently as pain tore through her.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE! WHO BROUGHT YOU! HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME!" He screamed at her over and over again.
"Please stop!" Anyetta cried trying to pull him away from Sarah with little effect.
"Jareth." Sarah finally managed to whisper before blackness stole her away.
He stopped shaking her as she collapsed in his hands like a rag doll, crumpling to the floor as he released her.
"Get her out of my sight." He hissed clutching his hands to his chest like he had been burnt. "I do not know what is going on here but I will find the reason for this treason!" He stomped off, the throne room echoing with the sound of his boots.
"Sarah, Sarah child you must wake, please!" Anyetta begged as she knelt by Sarah's side, urging her awake, feeding her failing aura with energy.
"Come Sarah we must take you back to your room, you will be safe there." After several minutes of coaxing Anyetta managed to get Sarah to her feet, holding her up as they staggered wearily from the throne room.
Sarah never noticed which direction this strange young woman took her, but it seemed an awful lot shorter than the way she had come. She collapsed onto the bed and wept in pain and sorrow.
"Sarah, I must ask, who took you to the throne room?"
"I don't know, some old woman, she didn't have a shadow and she seemed angry with me." Sarah whispered trying not to breathe from the agony of her broken ribs.
"Please, do you have any pain killers? Anything..."
"Oh, of course I'm so sorry." Anyetta stepped forward and asked permission to touch Sarah's temples. When Sarah nodded the young woman sat down next to her and placed cool hands on her skin, gently brushing away her untamed hair. Merciful absence of pain flowed through her body, leaving the steady throbbing of the scar on her hand.
"This is the Labyrinths work." Anyetta said nodding towards the scar. "I can't affect it." She sat there still soothing Sarah's brow, lost in thought. "I'm so sorry Sarah, this never should have happened. I don't know why they are doing this."
"Who are they?"
"The Moirai. They do as they please for reasons we can not fathom, but they rarely involve mortals outside their realms like this." Her frown deepened.
"So many things have happened, do you even remember, or has it affected you too?"
"I, I remember everything." Sarah muttered, flushing in shame.
"There are things you must know then, about magic in the Underground. There are some types, like glamour which are short lived, and have no side effects. Then there are others. Taking a life by magic destroys the soul, and reordering time, makes the one who cast the magic forget." Anyetta said with heavy emphasis on the last word.
"Forget?" Sarah asked as Anyatta nodded silently.
"Depending on the length of time reordered. The caster loses their memory of recent events, forgets almost everything except constants. He has forgotten everything from the last few months, knows you only as a child who said no. The girl who won against the Labyrinth, he has returned to how he was after you left the first time."
"Will he ever remember? Why do you remember and not him?"
"I am, bound by other laws. It's complicated. I hope that he will, the amount of time he reordered was tiny compared to last time. Minutes rather than hours. Perhaps he will remember tomorrow, or the day after. All we can do is make sure you stay strong, and your injuries repair properly. I beg you, do not try to find him or explore beyond this room for now. Perhaps he will show leniency if I ask at the right time." She stopped and looked out the window frowning again.
"I must go. Rest Sarah, I will return later."
Sarah nodded dumbly as Anyetta rose and practically ran out the door, closing it firmly behind her.
Whilst she no longer felt any pain from her other injuries the scar provided a regular counterpoint to the swirl of emotions cascading round her head. How was she supposed to deal with this, why was she even here if he had forgotten her. She felt sick and dizzy, as she made herself comfortable on the bed, falling into the darkness of dreamless sleep with ease.
The days slipped into nights in an endless cycle interrupted only by Anyetta's visits as Sarah paced her small room and sat for hours in the half light on the balcony, resting. Waiting. In the soft lamplight in the bathroom she watched her bruises and cuts slowly turning from dark purple black to green yellow and a myriad of colours between. The weather was a constant, the clouds swirled unceasingly but they did not drop any rain yet it always smelt like hot wet pavements after a rainstorm. It was warm during the day, and almost bitterly cold at night when the Labyrinth seems to hold its breath, waiting just like she did.
She was leaning against the balcony looking down into the small walled garden when Anyetta entered her room with fresh food. She had noticed that Sarah always avoided the peaches and had left them off the tray she placed on the dresser.
"Have you seen him? Have you spoken to him?" Sarah asked turning to face Anyetta as she stepped out onto the balcony next to her.
"No, I'm sorry. I don't know where he has gone. I left the letter for him like he asked, but he has not read it yet."
"Then he won't care if hes not here. Can't you at least show me the garden? I hate being stuck in here."
Anyetta sighed and shook her head halfheartedly.
"Please? I promise I won't go anywhere else."
"He will kill both of us when he finds out I think."
"If he tries I will tell him it was all my idea and I made you." Sarah said smiling for what felt the first time in weeks.
"You will need to remember the way then. Once I have shown you. The castle will not let you go anywhere else." Anyetta said firmly motioning Sarah to follow her.
They turned left out of Sarahs door, and she counted 3 similar doors before they reached a set of spiraling stairs that lead down and up. She resisted trying to see what was above them and followed Anyetta down to the very bottom where they took a further turn back to the right and down a corridor with a single door which lead out into the garden. Sarah sighed in relief.
"Shouldn't be too difficult to remember." She shrugged looking back down the corridor behind Anyetta.
"I will come and collect you later, just so you are sure." She said nodding and leaving the way she had come.
Sarah slowly walked out into the garden, watching her footing on the slightly uneven stone slabs. The last thing she needed was to trip over and hurt her just healing ribs and wrist. She made a full circuit of the outer path before heading into the inner one. She had not realised from her balcony that the center was quite so large, or that it had a large comfortable arbour seat and a small well to one side.
She carried on walking out the other side of the central area, back to the outer path and walked back all the way around the garden to the door into the castle. She deliberately turned away from the door and carried on walking, this time stopping to examine the plants that barely clung to life in the borders. They all seemed desperate for water, and in much need of pruning. She made her way around stopping now and then to absently remove a dead flower here and there, mulling on her situation as she had nothing else to do. By the time she had returned once more to the arbour seat she noticed a watering can next to the well. "Convenient, only if this well has water." She said aloud walking over to investigate.
Dropping a stone down into the dark hole which reminded her of the oubliette she counted 4 seconds before she heard the telltale sploosh of the stone falling into the water. Somewhat laboriously she managed to persuade the winding mechanism into life, slowly pulling up what she hoped was a bucket of reasonably fresh water rather than something more unpleasant. She was ridiculously relieved when the bucket revealed nothing worse than a small frog and a hole which dripped water. Filling up the watering can she began methodically with the plants in the inner ring, giving them all a good soaking.
She didn't really care how many times she had to drop the bucket down the well, or how long it might take her to water the entire garden, she was simply glad to have something to do. She got increasingly infuriated with the nightgown after she had already discarded the robe and finally resorted to ripping the entire bottom section off from her knees down. She longed for comfortable t-shirts and shorts in the tepid, humid weather. She carried on her mission ignoring hunger pangs and her aching ribs, figuring the exercise was doing her good.
She had barely noticed the light dimming as she sat for a moment in the arbour seat, listening to the silence and the strange absence of birds and insects as she cupped some of the water in her hands for a drink. From here she could see how vast the castle really was. Far greater than the little thing her imagination had once created. It soared into the sky with an array of mismatched towers and long galleries between them in a disorganised architectural display. It has a certain flair though. An arrogant confidence that seemed to reflect its master. She was half asleep wondering just how many rooms it might have when Anyetta came to collect her, laughing when she saw what Sarah had done to her night dress.
"You should have said, you must think I am a terrible host not giving you anything else to wear."
"Do you live here too then?"
"Most of the time, sometimes I return home with my husband." She opened the door to Sarah's room and smiled.
"Sleep well Sarah."
Sarah nodded, heading into the bathroom to soak herself in the bath for a while before investigating the new array of clothing in the wardrobe and chest of draws. She was pleasantly surprised and pleased, immediately discarded the towel to put on clean underthings and a matching set of PJ's. The air had gone chill as she brushed out her hair and cleaned her teeth. She felt calmer than she had since she had first found herself back in the Labyrinth, but wasn't entirely convinced it was a good thing.
Settling herself for sleep under the duvet she was just at the point of drifting off when she could have sworn she saw the shadow of an owl sitting on the balcony but dismissed it and rolled over.